Following the enactment of the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005, the Scottish Executive entered into a partnership with the STUC to:
- Assess the level of verbal and physical abuse in Scotland
- Identify good practice where it existed
- Make recommendations for change
The subsequent report 'Protection of Public Service Workers: When the Customer isn't Right' published in September 2004 sets out a package of measures to address the problem of verbal and physical attacks on workers serving the public developed by the Scottish Executive in partnership with the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), other representative bodies and relevant agencies.
A Steering Group including representatives from the Scottish Executive, the STUC, employers and professional bodies is overseeing development of the measures in a three year programme, including:
training in preventing and handling abuse
a model reporting system
identifying and sharing best practice
means of helping employers to meet their legal obligations to minimise the risks of verbal or physical violence towards staff
better ways of monitoring the problem across Scotland, to identify trends and take appropriate action
This activity is being supported by a multi-media awareness campaign highlighting the prevalence of verbal and physical violence against public service workers; emphasise the unacceptability of such behaviour in our society; and encourage victims to report any abuse they encounter. Amongst many others this has included:
- Emergency services
- Transport
- Retail
- Health
- Call Centres
- Local authorities
- Betting shops
- Small businesses